he one thing
desirable above all others. Alas! it is even then, in the very hour of
redeeming mercy, of renewing grace, that your severest trials will
begin. Then first will you thoroughly experience how truly it is "an
evil thing and bitter, to forsake the Lord your God."[101] Then you will
find that every late effort at self-denial, simplicity of mind and
purpose, abstinence from worldly excitements, &c., is met, not only by
the evil instincts which belong to our nature, but by the superinduced
difficulty of opposing confirmed habits.

Smoothly and tranquilly flows on the stream of habit, and we are unaware
of its growing strength until we try to erect an obstacle in its course,
and see this obstacle swept away by the long-accumulating power of the
current.

In truth, all those who have wilfully added the power of evil habits to
the evil tendencies of their fallen nature must expect "to go mourning
all the days of their life." It is only to those who have served the
Lord from their youth that "wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and
all her paths peace." To others, though by the grace of God they may be
finally saved, there is but a dreary prospect until the end come. They
must ever henceforth consult their safety by denying themselves many
pleasant things which the well-regulated mind of the habitually pious
may find not only safe but profitable. At the same time they sorrowfully
discover that they have lost all taste for those entirely simple
pleasures with which the path of God's obedient children is abundantly
strewn. Their path, on the contrary, is rugged, and their flowers are
few: their sun seldom shines; for they themselves have formed clouds out
of the vapours of earth, to intercept its warming and invigorating
radiance: what wonder, then, if some among them should turn it back into
the bright and sunny land of self-indulgence, now looking brighter and
more alluring than ever from its contrast with the surrounding gloom?

Let not this dangerous risk be yours. While yet young--young in habits,
in energies, in affections, devote all to the service of the best of
masters. "The work of righteousness," even now, through difficulties,
self-denial, and anxieties, will be "peace, and the effect thereof
quietness and assurance for ever."[102]

FOOTNOTES:

[89] 1 Cor. viii. 13.

[90] Matt. xviii. 6, 7.

[91] Milnes.

[92] Keble.

[93] French.

[94] James i. 12.

[95] 1 John v. 19.

[96] Matt. xv